Method of operating pumps by wind



PATENT OFFICE.

HIRAM MOORE, OF CHARLESTON, MICHIGAN.

METHOD OF OPERATING PUMPS BY WIND.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 12,517, dated March 13, 1855.

To all whom it may concern;

Be 'it known that I, HIRAM MOORE, of

Charleston, in the county of Kalamazoo andV State of Michigan, have inventeda new and useful improvement 1n machinery which is specially adapted for actuating pumps by the power of the wind, but which canbe used for working pumps by other than wind-power, of which the following is a specification.

It haslong been a desideratum in those sections of country wh ere springs and brooks are scarce and wells deep to compensate these disadvantages` by taking advantage of the power of the wind toactuate pumps, particularly to supply water for cattle and for household purposes, and as it .is seldom perfectly calm for twelve hours at a time asufticiently regular supply. of water could by thisineans be obtained without laborv so long as the pump and the mechanism by which the pump was actuated remained ingood order.` Here, however, the main difficulty lies, and it has here-f tofore Vdefeated every attempt to operate common pumps in thismanner.A

Among the various difficulties that have beenmet with one .of the most troublesome results from the unsteadiness of the Wind as a motive power, which sometimes, as in a hurricane, moves with immense velocity 'and power,fwhile at other times its current isvery4 slow, asin a gentle breeze. Yet, since the Wind .generally blows gently, often briskly,

land it is only occasionally that we have either a' hurricane or a perfect calm, the mechanism for pumping by means of the power derived fromrthe wind must be adapted to raisingan adequate supply of water when the wind is blowing gently.` Now, if .we suppose the pump to be adapted to raising one gallon of water per minute when the wind is blowing at the rateof three miles an hour` and-that the well or spring will konlyyield two gallons per minute, itis evident that when the wind increases toninemiles an hour the well will be pumped nearly dry very speedily and the sand and other .earthy mat-ter will be agit-ated and mixed with the water and drawn with it into the pump, and. .the rapid motion of the piston will abrade andspeedily destroy the barrel, when the pump-Will be disabled andthe raising of i the-water stopped. Further, thesand and other earthy matter carried up wbythe water,

although comparatively inconsiderable in quant-ity for a short time, yet in the course Aof even a few months will, in friable earth,

be sufficient to undermine the Walls of the well and cause them to cave in, and thereby" at once both stop the pump and shut up the source of supply of water. those parts of the country where running water is scarce it usually happens that even deep Wells yield a very scanty supply of water, which unless used with economy will be entirely insufficient. An excessive discharge will be wholly inconsistent with due economy, for although the surplus be returned to the well, yet the evaporation in dry warm.

`weather, consequent upon the exposure of l the water, will waste it away very rapidly, and therefore where water is scarce such exposure to evaporation is wholly inadmissible. Further, since any application of the windmill to pumps, in order to be generally useful for domestic purposes, for which my invention is designed, must be adapted to the [common pump, it will be indispensable to construct and arrange the mechanism in such manner that the force for the lifting-stroke v of the plunger will 'be strong and quick, for

` it always fits loosely in the barrel of a common pump, and if not lifted quickly it would not raise the water, but would. permit it to y pass down between the barrel and plunger as the latter rises. If, as in the common as well as all windmill pumps heretofore known, the upward and downward strokes of the plunger areA made at the same velocity, then the wear and tear would, and has in practice proved to be such, that the pump andfdriving machinery would soon become deranged and fail to supply water.

The foregoing and other objections which might be named have prevented the introduction into general use of windmill-pumps, and water is still raised by hand at great labor and expense; and a practical windmilh pump capable of furnishing a small but con` stant supply of water has continued up to the date of my invention to be a desideratum. For although machinery of a complex and expensive character for furnishing a` regular engineers, yet this machinery is wholly inad' Further, inv

missible for pumps for dwellings and farms from its expensiveness, complexity, and the impossibility of its being managed and repaired by farmers, who, as a class, are unskilled in such matters.

My invent-ion and improvement consists in a combination of a spring or weight for raising the plunger of the pump quickly with a cam of peculiar construction for compressing the spring or raising the weight very slowly, and at the same time depressing the plunger in such manner that it will make one stroke down and another up at each revolution of the cam, the length of which stroke will be inversely proportioned to the rapidity with which the cam revolves. From which it follows that if the cam be caused to rotate with great rapidity by the rapid rotation of the sails of a windmill during a high wind the strokes of the plunger will be reduced so short that little if any more water will be discharged than when the sails are turned slowly by a gentle breeze when the strokes are longer. The cam producing` these edects I term a compensating cam, and it not only compensates the irregularities in the motion of the wind, but also,like the fusee in a watch, compensates the variations in the resistance of a spring or the leverage of a weight; for while the spring is most compressed and offers the greatest resistance that part of the cam which has the shortest radius and acts with the greatest power is acting upon it, and when it is least compressed and opposes the least resistance that part of the cam which has the longest radius, and therefore acts with the least power, is compressing it. In this way this differential cam compensates both irregular power and irregular resistance.

The accompanying drawings represent a pump and windmill connected by means of my improvements.

Figure l represents a vicw in perspective of the same; and Fig. 2 represents a view of an arrangement of helical lifting springs, which I have sometimes used insteadof the elliptic springs shown in Fig. l.

Any kind of force or lifting pump and any kind of windmill may be used that the coilstructor prefers. I have merely represented one form of each in the drawings to illustrate more clearly the manner in which my invention for connecting them may be applied.

The drawings represent a windmill and pump erected upon a platform for convenience ot' representation; but in practice I erect the pump in the usual manner in the well, and erect the mill as near to it as may be convenient, extending the braces more or less according to the height of the mill and anchor them in the ground or otherwise fasten them at the lower end. The windmill is of a horizontal variety and revolves on a vertical shaft A. This shaft is braced from near the top by rods B, which are anchored at the bottom in the ground, and is stepped upon a pedestal C. Near the lower end of the shaft two bevel-pinions D and E are seeurcd,which are of unequal size and take into corresponding bevel-wheels on a horizontal shaft F, one end of which rests in a bearing in the pedestal C, and the other in a bearing in the upper part of the pump-stock G. lVhen it is required to work the pump fast relatively to the windmill, the smallest wheel E on the shaft A is connected with the small wheel II on the shaft F, and when a slower motion is required the wheel D is connected with the large wheel I on the shaft and the other two wheels E and II are disconnected. These changes may be effected by means of any of the well-known clutches and shifting mechanism in common use for connect-ing and disconnecting gearing.

On the end of the shaft F a cam is mounted. This cam consists of a plate J, on the inner side of which a spiral rib K is attached. This rib, when the cam is rotated in the direction of the arrow a, will catch a pin L, that projects from the piston-rod M of the pump, and will depress this pin by the convergence of the rib toward the center of motion of the cam until the pin passes the inner end b of the rib K, when the pin and piston-rod will be free to rise, and in this case will be promptly raised by a spring N, connected to the top ofv the piston-rod, and which was compressed by the depression of the piston-rod, which is bent over the top of the spring at P for that purpose. As the water is raised by the lifting of the piston-rod and piston, as in ordinary pumps, the spring will raise the water, and the piston willascend with a speed proportioned to the strength `ot' the spring and the degree to which it is compressed; but as the force which the spring exerts is the same at one stroke of the pump as at any other stroke it follows that the ascent of the piston will be at a regular and uniform rate, and as the piston will be left free to rise from the time the end b of the spiral rib releases the pin L until the opposite end of the rib againstrikes the pin L, which is an` interval of about half a revolution of the cam,the piston will make a full stroke when the cam turns slowly; but when it turns fast the piston will have raised but little before it is again struck by the rib and depressed. This makes the strokes of the piston short when the cam revolves rapidly, and long when it revolves slowly, and in this way the operation of the machineryis such that however irregular the motion of the motive power may be the quantity of water discharged remains practically constant, and the injurious effects heretofore produced by irregularity will be avoided. If the spring is substituted by a weight mounted on an arm, which will be horizontal, or thereabout, when the plunger is down and vertical when the plunger is'raised, the action of the spiral cam would remain unchanged, and as the cam would start the weight upward very slowly and gradually and the larrangement and operation of the lever would arrest it on its delasw e scent gradually and without shock the machinery would Work Without injurious shocks or jars whether the Water be raised by the elastic force of a spring or the gravitation of a Weight.V v

In using a weight for the raising-power or aforce instead of a lifting pump the motion of the cam might in some cases be reversed with advantageand the pin Work on the out-- side 4instead of the inside of the spiral rib.

For the purpose of diminishing friction, the depressing-pin yL is fitted with a frictionroller. The Wheels, too,rmight be dispensed with, and the cam connected directly With the windmill-shaft A.

Numerous other modificationsbesides those I have indicated might be made in the `construction of this machine without any departure from the principle of my invention; but as those changes and modifications willbe l sufficiently obvious to any skillful constructor to enable him to adapt the machine to the varying uses and circumstances under which In testimony whereof I have hereunto subi scribed my name.

HIRAM MOORE. In presence of- F. G. DE FONTAINE, A. E. H. J oHNsoN. 

